Black Friday and the fourth quarter seems like a very distant event when you are just coming into the summer season. However, it is such a big deal that it is important to start getting your e-commerce store ready as soon as possible. If it turns out that your store is not fully ready once the time comes then it’s usually too late to do anything about it.
You may not find yourself in a disaster, but there could be money being left on the table if you don’t work out the bugs now. However, there could also be a disaster looming if your site isn’t robust enough to handle the surge in traffic. Since it’s better to know now, we will go over several ways to get your site ready for Q4 right away.
1 – Make sure the site works
The worst possible thing you can have happen during Q4 and especially on a shopping day like Black Friday is to have your site go down because there is too much traffic. It’s a classic case of being a victim of your own success. Your site may seem to be fine right now but once your traffic starts surging it can stress the server and other aspects of the site and cause it to go down.
It’s a good idea to hire a site reliability engineer to do some tests on your website ahead of time to make sure it can stand up to the added influx when the time comes. This person will try things like operations processes and systems architecture checks to make sure the site is not only not going to crash but will also offer the best shopping experience for s at any time of the year.
2 – Fast shipping
Shipping is another area that gets tested and is often at its breaking point during much of the fourth quarter. It is a crucial time and you need to rely on your shipping provider. Think back to the last season and if you recall any incidents that were less than ideal you will need to get in to talk to them. Ask them if they have solved the issues and have a plan for improvement for this season.
Even if you are happy with your provider, this is a good opportunity to add another provider to the mix to pick up the slack and make sure that you always have a contingency plan.
3 – Offer various payment options
When it comes time to pay during the holidays many people need to have a lot of options. They tend to max out credit cards and will need to use other methods. If your site doesn’t accept any other methods then this could cause some of the shoppers to abandon their carts and you’ll lose that sale for good.
Look into accepting some third-party apps like Paypal and Stripe so people will still be able to shop.
